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Health minister Dan Poulter said while overseas doctors make a "hugely valuable contribution to the NHS" it is "clear" that "tougher checks" on English language skills are needed. He added:

We have already strengthened the way doctors' language skills are checked at a local level. These new powers are an important step in making the system even stronger by allowing the GMC to carry out checks on a national level before they start work in the UK and prevent doctors who do not have the necessary knowledge of English from treating patients.

Niall Dickson, chief executive of the General Medical Council, said:

This is an important move that will help protect patients and will be welcomed across the country.

The move to enpower the General Medical Council's English language testing comes after a series of high-profile cases, including Dr Daniel Ubani, who killed a patient in 2008 after confusing the names of two drugs.

The new powers for the GMC could see inspectors:

checking for language competency when looking at qualifications

judging how long doctors have been registered in other countries

examining the type of experience the doctors possess

assessing any doctor if language concerns arise during a fitness-to-practise investigation

Red flags may include doctors turning up with interpreters, poor English in interviews or poor written English on application forms. Any worries could then prompt full testing of the doctor's language skills.

Today there will be something like a million interactions between general practice and patients - so you are talking about a very small number relative to the huge number of interactions that there are every day.

It doesn't mean that we should ignore this number of complaints.

We need to learn from it and learn, for example, what areas or what stages of a doctor's career they may be more vulnerable to complaints and where additional support can be given in order for doctors to provide better care.

We must keep a careful eye on these complaints. A rise may partly be a result of patients rightly being more assertive in voicing dissatisfaction about their care, or it may be something more substantial.

Employers and individual doctors need to analyse this data and look carefully at the cases where doctors have not met the standards patients expect, and what action they need to take when they fall short.

Every patient should be given the necessary time to discuss healthcare concerns which can often be complex and upsetting.

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Labour's Shadow Health Minister has claimed patients are being hit by the Government's "mismanagement of the NHS" after a General Medical Council report concluded complaints against doctors rose 23 percent in the last year.

The Government cannot brush this aside - patients are clearly being hit by their mismanagement of the NHS.

Ministers lost a grip on NHS finances and we are seeing increasingly crude cost cutting measures.

GPs are now being offered financial incentives to cut the number of referrals and patients face a growing list of banned or rationed treatments.

It's no surprise that people are angry.

Yesterday's British Social Attitudes survey reported a nosedive in public satisfaction with the NHS - falling for the first time in a decade.

Today's figures will only add to concerns about a health service heading in the wrong direction under this out of touch Government.

The Government is committed to giving patients a stronger voice in the NHS, so that people have a greater say in where and by whom they are treated and importantly to ensure the NHS learns and improves from mistakes when things have gone wrong.

The GMC is rightly taking steps to better understand and deal with an increase in complaints, but it is important to reassure people that this does not mean that medical standards are falling and complaints to the GMC are not always directly related quality of front line patient care.